my journey…shared in poems, prose and photos

Vanished!

After seeing a beautiful little girl sitting alone in a store doorway yesterday, while her parents (I’m assuming they were her parents) were sitting a long distance away, having lunch and not even watching her closely ; I felt compelled to reblog this poem/post.

So many of these tragedies may never have happened, if parents/guardians had been more diligent and careful.

I am a freelance writer, poet, artisan, avid book/product reviewer and award-winning cookbook author.
I recently published the second volume of my new vegetarian cookbook series:
-The Groovy Green Kitchen II: Simply, Super, Supper Soups
and my fun and inspirational book, all about aging well:
-Laughing AT the Grim Reaper! Gems of Wisdom for Aging Well
I am also the author of:
-The Groovy Green Kitchen: Weeknight Veggie Slow Cooker
-Third Chapter, Second Chance (a mid-life romance)
-Not Just for Vegetarians: Delicious Homestyle Cooking, the Meatless Way
and the poetry collections:
-Haiku Reflections:The Four Seasons (Volume i and II)
and
-My Poetic Path
All titles available at Amazon.com, .ca, UK....
When I'm not writing or creating new recipes, I love to knit and crochet; usually with some "help" from feline friend, yarn-loving Mr. Cheddar!
I hope you will visit and enjoy all of my blogs.Thanks for stopping by.
Wishing You a Happy Week and Namaste! :-)

10 thoughts on “Vanished!”

Geraldine, great post topic, and one that I think is VERY important to remember.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ll spot a small child in the park walking around so far away from where the parents are. And what kills me is that the parents are TOTALLY oblivious to where the child is.

I’ve also seen this in stores and out on the city streets.

Love your poem! Very powerful and eye-opening words!

“Be wary, be diligent, be ever on guard.”

Amen!

Again, thank you for sharing this very important topic and spreading awareness.

Oh my, this is so synchronistic, I was talking a walk this Sunday, when I passed by two young boys on swings in a park and, a woman in a green car looking at the boys and looking around in a spooky manner — in that it did not look like something a parent or guardian would do; sensing something strange and worrisome, I went over to the swings and began swinging myself. My thoughts were: if this person is a parent or guardian then it’s good because they will see that a stranger came to the swings to also swing on a swing as they were doing and since the person is a stranger they will feel good about watching the children in the future because one must always remember about strangers, “Stranger — Danger”.

The boys began talking to me and showing me how to swing higher and showing off their swinging abilities and having a lot of fun yahooing and laughing, it was delightful and I also began to yahoo and laugh. well, this is when it became even more spooky, once the woman saw that I was with the boys having fun, she took off in her car like lightening heading toward the highway.

I realized, that this woman was not a parent nor caregiver at that time due to her leaving.

I told the boys to go home to where they were living or staying for the weekend [since I did not know them I did not know since it was Mother’s Day if they lived there or were visiting], they told me they were staying with their grandmother for the weekend. When I asked them why their grandmother was not with them making sure that they were safe from strangers, they told me: “because grandma says it’s safe here.” I told them that it is not safe for them to be alone anywhere at their age and to please go now, and they did go.

I did not ask who the grandmother was so I could go and speak to her and let her know what happened so it would not happen in the future because I did not want the boys to learn to answer strangers where they are residing.

The one thing I did learn was that when someone is in a car lurking around children who are alone and they leave when a person comes along who looks like they are the child/children’s parent or guardian and they leave quickly: get the license plate!

I’m not surprised that you see similar scenarios at work, etc…Ron. Sometimes, I’d just like to go up and tell these “parents” off and in a big way. Where we are, I think a lot of the complacency comes from it being a small city of around 9000 people. But that is no excuse to ignore (and I do mean IGNORE) your young children and not even keep an eye on them. I know parents and guardians get tired looking after their kids but there is no excuse for this kind of behavior. I’m still thinking about the little girl I mentioned above. I hope she is safe today. I hope this was a one time thing in terms of her parents attitude that day but sadly, it probably is not. 😦

Amen to that Joe, way too often.

Oh Genie, thanks for sharing this incident. And how wonderful that you were able to intervene before tragedy did strike. That definitely sounds suspicious. Those boys are very lucky that you came along. And yes, we really must get a license plate if there’s enough time to do so.

As a young girl, I had an experience walking home from school one day when a man stopped his car and asked me to get inside. I was about 8 at the time I believe and we lived in a safe area, only a couple of blocks from school. I usually walked home with my pals but for some reason, that day I was alone. Well, in spite of being very frightened, I yelled NO and took off running home. But even now, I can remember that man, the open car door…it still sends chills down my spine. My parents were very protective of all of us and had taught me well though and I did react in a way that kept things from going from bad to worse that day. But sometimes kids don’t get a chance to get away.

Wow this is very eye-opening Geraldine. Sad, tragic, and moving at the same time. When I was little I used to explore out in the woods for hours per day. I’m not sure I would be able to in this day and age.

Yes, I so agree. And your poem makes a strong statement as well. It is much better to be safe than sorry and have such a horrible event occur. Sometimes I wonder if I am too over-protective, but then I think: I don’t care. My kids are too precious to me not to be! All you have to do is read the news and know you can never be too careful.

Nice to see you again Keith. And yes, it seems that kids now days can’t be nearly as free as years ago, although as I’ve explained above in my own personal experience, there were dangers then too, but probably not nearly as much as there is now.

The other thing that just came to mind about when I was growing up was, we could always run into anyone’s house in the neighborhood, everyone knew everyone, the doors were usually not locked either. Now, where would kids run to, if they were not very close to their own home? Things like that make a difference too.

Here, here about it not being over-protective, all things considered. That is so true. Better safe than sorry.

Yes, Audrey…in the blink of an eye, exactly. It can all happen so fast. And changed life forever too.

Oh Geraldine, what a beautiful poem. So sad. Unfortunately, this happens too often. Just this week, my husband saw a man leave his baby in the car seat unattended while he went to Starbucks. He told a cop and I think they went after him. It even upsets me when people leave pets in their car, so thoughtless. Have a great weekend. 🙂